Leaving on a Jet Plane

It's 5:26 and the car will be here in a few minutes to whisk us to the airport and off we go for a whirlwind holiday in London. I have submitted the Drama League script and left them with instructions. I hate leaving at this time, just when the rehearsals are happening, but I will be back in time for the big one day craziness that leads to Monday night's performance. Then it's over. At least for this year. The sound designer was very complimentary and enthusiastic about the script (did anyone else read it?) and thought this would be the best show in years. Well, I put a lot into it and it is the most coherent script-wise in a long time. It is a kind of story, which is odd for a vaudevillian benefit with all these performers who never meet until that night. The hosts will glue it all together and the fantastic video montages that sprinkle the evening to me will either be the highlights or if the technical Gods are angry, the nadir. But I shall remain optimistic. I got the most lovely emails from a fellow writer whom I never met about I Could Have Sung All Night. His praise was just the lift I needed before leaving the country. Well, off we go...speak to you from London.

First Drafts

I just emailed the first draft of the script for When Broadway Met Hollywood. It's really pretty good, not the script, but the fact that I am submitting a script a whole week before the show. Many times before I have waited till the last minute as stars came and went. But since there are so few A list stars this year, I suspect no one will drop out...now watch! Getting geared up for my London trip and I hope I don't have to do too much transcontinental rewriting. Tomorrow morning I am having breakfast with a director I like to talk about my show Saturday Night at Grossinger's which is pencilled in to be produced this summer at the York Theatre Company here in NYC. The show has been produced several times now in this small six character state and the best production by far was in LA. I hope we can somehow recreate that magic.

Sunday Night at the Drama League

Well, I finally got down to writing some of the intros for the Drama League Benefit. It has been harder than I thought because I am so unsure about two of the numbers. This is the most theme driven and chronological of the shows I have done for the Drama League...I really have to order the show to go from 1927 (after our opening which is in the present) and the invention of sound to the film version of Chicago...and to now...80 years of stuff...but two of the number early on are vague to me...I Got Rhythm is a great song but it wasn't what I wanted in the slot and I have no idea of how to cleverly introduce it as it doesn't further my love affair between Broadway and Hollywood...I guess it does...it was born on Broadway and remained in the three film versions of the show. A standard, a staple, something to anchor all the movie versions. So that's what I shall say...maybe. And the other is Manhattan, but really a bit by an impressionist that takes us out of our time period. Oh well, I will try to make it work. It's only a show! By that I mean it's not a book show and it's only one night, but oh how I would love it to be great. It's enough that there aren't too many big stars, so I would really like it to hold together as an evening. Well, we shall see what we shall see. At least I wrote some today. My favorite intro, which I am sure will get cut down is as follows:
(This is to introduce a Julie Andrews medley but also to point up the comic aspects of how Hollywood treats Broadway royalty. It might be split up between our two hosts or not...not sure yet) Neither Alfred Drake nor John Raitt got to recreate their roles in Oklahoma and Carousel. Both roles were played by Gordon MacRae. John Raitt DID get to play his role in The Pajama Game, but opposite him was Doris Day instead of Janis Paige. Janis Paige was busy playing Gretchen Wyler’s stage role in the film version of Silk Stockings, in which dancer Cyd Charisse played the part that was acted by non-dancer Hildegarde Neff on the stage. Opposite Cyd Charrise in the film version of Brigadoon was not singer David Brooks but dancer Gene Kelly, while Gene Kelly’s dancing stage role of Pal Joey was now taken on the screen by a singing Frank Sinatra.,

Amazingly, Ethel Merman DID get to play Reno Sweeney and Sally Adams in the stage and screen versions of Anything Goes and Call Me Madam respectively, but to offset those she was allowed to recreate neither her Annie Oakley or Rose in Gypsy. Those roles went to Betty Hutton and Rosalind Russell respectively. Rosalind Russell’s singing was dubbed by Broadway’s Lisa Kirk whose role in Kiss Me Kate was played by Ann Miller. Chita Rivera’s Spanish Rose in Bye Bye Birdie was played on the screen by a very blonde Janet Leigh in a dark wig, while Chita played the screen role that Helen Gallagher played on Broadway in Sweet Charity, in which Shirley MacLaine replaced Gwen Verdon.

Mary Martin’s Nellie Forbush was supplanted for the film version by Mitzi Gayor, who sang Merman’s songs in remake of Anything Goes. And although Juanita Hall did get to play her stage role of Bloody Mary, her singing was dubbed by the actress who played the role in London.

And now we get to the Julie Andrews factor.

Mary Martin’s Maria Von Trapp was taken by Julie Andrews, while Julie Andrews lost Eliza Doolittle to Audrey Hepburn with a little help from Marni Nixon’s voice. In fact, although Julie Andrews was able to lick her wounds while polishing her Oscar for Mary Poppins, she did not get to play any of her Broadway roles on film. The screen Guenevere was Vanessa Redgrave while her Boyfriend role was sung and danced by none other than Twiggy. Later on, Julie somehow got to reverse her fortune and recreate her screen role of Victor AND Victoria when that film became a Broadway show. Phew!

To remind us of the wonderful songs that Julie Andrews either introduced on stage or popularized on the screen is the irreplaceable Melissa Errico.

Late Night Extra

Got to chat on line (IM) with my collaborator Jeffrey Saver. We wrote Dodsworth, Time after Time and lots of special material songs together and are now putting together this Kander and Ebb. Jeff is off tending to his wife who is ill and we don't get to speak enough, so this is a treat and stimulating for both of us. Jeff and I met in the early 90s I think and began to work together right away. It was he who got me involved with the Drama League and with Albert Stevenson and thus with John Kander. By the way speaking of Ebb, he was one of three judges who gave me the coveted Ed Kleban Award several years ago for my work on the libretto of The Night of the Hunter. I never really got to thank him. The prize was a hundred grand! Thanks Fred! Now if I could only win the Fred Ebb Award! Jeff is going through a lot of hell now but he will get through it. He is a wonderful person and deserves better, but because he is a wonderful person he has a great support system. I only hope that we can get back to work soon on Time after Time which has so much potential. Also, if we were working on that again it would mean that his dear wife was better and he could concentrate on something other than her health and the well being of his two daughters. That would be wonderful. Meanwhile we are working together on this tribute to his dear friend John and that will be wonderful as well.

Saturday...the Day Off

Today I went on a journey to Foxwoods Casino with a group of friends. It was a fun excursion except for not winning any money and the fact that it was a smoke-filled day. Everyone smokes in these places! My throat is sore, my clothes stink and I hate it. Other than losing money and stinking, I loved the day...Also, I only THOUGHT about my writing. But while I was out Karen Ziemba confirmed that she will appear in the Kander and Ebb Tribute and David Garrison is also pencilled in. Add them to Deb Monk, David Hyde Pierce, a pretty certain Barbara Cook and an almost Liza and you almost have a show. More to come on that. Still working hard in my head on the new opening for The Road to Qatar. Tomorrow, I will write everything that I can for the Drama League show and get it off of my plate as much as possible. The day off is over.

Friday Night at the Movies

I received emails with quicktime versions of the edited film clips that will accompany the special material song that I wrote with my collaborator Matthew Ward for the Drama League Benefit on Feb. 5th. The song is being sung by Jim Dale and Joanna Gleason and it's about the 80 year disfunctional love affair between Broadway and Hollywood. The film clips are brilliantly edited by Harry Arends. This is the first time I have worked closely with Harry although we shared the bill on a few other Drama League Benefits beginning with our tribute to Liza Minnelli . In fact Harry and I shared a Liz Smith column in which she praised us both, saying that Harry should "get his own brand of Oscar" and that "the brilliant lyrics written to the tune of 'Deep in the Heart of Texas' were penned by the gifted Stephen Cole." Oh yes, that's me! Stephen Cole. Not the Stephen Cole who writes Dr. Who, but the Stephen Cole who wrote After the Fair, Casper, The Night of the Hunter, Dodsworth, That Book about That Girl, Aspire, The Road to Qatar and others...THAT Stephen Cole. Anyway, I am thrilled about the way we are going to combine live action and film in this show. That is what keeps me working on this. I know the audience is going to love it.

Kander and Ebb Tribute and FD

I got a call back today from Liza's assistant giving me a 50/50 chance that Liza will be available to appear at the March 5th Kander and Ebb Tribute I am writing and directing. This is exciting news. I need to really get on that on Monday, pin down other performers and know that we have a show. But if Liza is there we are solid. The audience will be so happy. The Drama League benefit continues to plague me, but I am in hopes the performers will be solidified and I will have a version of the script by the end of Tuesday. I have to. I leave for London on Wed. morning. I had breakfast with FD today and procrastinated as usual. We watched some of Kate Hepburn on the Cavett show and Bette's Person to Person. FD is a good person to procrastinate with. We have known each other for several decades and we will leave it at that. Numbers won't appear in this blog.

Last Night's Salon with my Book Agent

Last night my book agent had eleven of her favorite clients over for a "salon." I had no idea what to expect but it turned out to be inspirational and one of the reasons for me starting this blog. She was telling us all to think big for 2007. To go for the big money advances, the big co-authors, to use the internet better...I need to update my website and now...I am writing a blog. My latest book I COULD HAVE SUNG ALL NIGHT written with and about Marni Nixon (how many of you know that name? There will be a quiz!) is in it's third printing since being published in early September. I guess that's pretty good. The paperback is due out in the summer and that should do well too. I am not on the hunt for a new subject. I had toyed (and haven't totally given up on) writing a dual biography of two of my favorite stars (both of whom I knew) whose career and lives crossed on several occasions. But I am trying to think bigger now and want to collaborate (meaning, as Marni so aptly put it, I am the writer and they are the author!) with a very big celebrity who brings to the table their story, their fame, their publicity. After all, I have to do all the grunt work, like actually putting words on paper or computer as the case may be. So if there are any stars out there who want to write their memoirs, remember you can't do it alone. Come to me. I will drag the story from your guts, leaving you like a wet dishrag sometimes, but in the end you can say you wrote a book. Seriously, I am looking for a great subject so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

First Post

Well, this is my first post. I am not sure who will read this but I will try to write it as often as I can. I am in the midst of writing material for my 18th Drama League Benefit. This year's theme is When Broadway Met Hollywood and along with my collaborator Matthew Ward, I have written a piece of special material entitled Dysfunctional Duet for Broadway stars Joanna Gleason and Jim Dale to perform. I have also helped to devise a medley of Great Songs from Hit Broadway Shows that were turned into Bomb Movies. This will be done by four great singers with a special guest appearance from Barbra Streisand (she bombed in Hello, Dolly and On a Clear Day) in the guise of Steven Brinberg. The show is coming together and will include some interesting film montages which I am helping to create with a brilliant videographer on the West Coast. These benefits are very difficult and this year has been particulary hard in that stars haven't signed on as we would have wished. Not "A" stars anyway. Still it should be a very good show. I still have all my writing to do as far as the in between stuff and the intros to all the acts. I need to have this done by the 30th as I am leaving town and flying to London on the 31st for my partner's big birthday celebration. I will return in time for the last day of rehearsal and the show on the 5th of Feb. When this is over I have to dive into another similar event in tribute to Kander and Ebb, get back to rewriting my show The Road to Qatar, plan a new book proposal, and work on a mini show using Four Seasons songs. Phew! The writer's life.